Fanart: “Devil Child,” for SPN_Eldritch Bang (Sam and Dean Gen, PG)
Title: Devil Child
Author: captain-sodapop
Artist: cassiopeia7
Pairing: Sam and Dean, Gen
Rating: PG (Art only)
Media: Ink, marker, and Photoshop
Summary: Sam and Dean find themselves in Leeds Point, New Jersey, on a thin lead for the Jersey Devil. The hunt in the Pine Barrens only brings them confusion, however, as they begin to unravel the story of a disgraced mother and her child, and the night that ruined them.
Notes: Notes after art.
Link to fic: On AO3!
Mrs. Leeds gives birth to a cursed child.
Sam and Dean enter the Barrens for the first time.
Mrs. Leeds’s ghost.
[Notes and such.]
Thanks to my lovely author Captain-sodapop, who wrestled mightily with her school schedule to get this done. Life disasters notwithstanding, we made it to the finish line, bb! Thank you for writing such an atmospheric, art-inspiring story -- I can't wait to read the full version! Abby, you're a darling to work with -- creative and helpful and just awesome -- thanks for such a fun collaboration! It was an honor to work with you. Now rest up -- in the two seconds of peace you have before midterms, that is. 😈
Thanks also to the spneldritchbang mods for running this delightfully creepy shindig, and thanks to the person on my Twitter TL that posted about his event and got my attention. Finally, thank you New Jersey, for being weird enough to have your very own devil. I lived in NJ for close to a decade, and visited the Barrens twice (though never at night 'cause I'm crazy, not stupid), so I just had to grab this “Winchesters meet the Jersey Devil” story.
In-progress banner with font test. In which idjit artist didn't notice her failure to capture Baby's voluptuous curves until AFTER doing all that inking and shading of her rear bumper ... grrrr.
Lazy artist didn't want to re-draw all the detail of Baby's back end, and ended up inking overtop the existing piece to return the Impala's lines to a more respectable voluptuousness. Bless you, Staedtler brush pen, gouache, and white gel pen, bless you. Bless you, Canson marker paper, for not buckling under the onslaught.
And fark you, trees.
Digitally erased those most UN-happy trees in Photoshop. Took a reference photo of the tree-lined road ...
... filtered it to look a bit less photograph-y ...
... blurred the edges of the tree-line for a more eldritch (heh) glow, removed the daytime sky and replaced it with a blue/black gradient layer ...
... added the artwork of the Impala and the Jersey Devil crossing the full moon ...
... cleaned up the rough edges on Baby's cut-and-paste job, swore a whole lot, and four hours later, with an aching wrist from all the mouse work ...
... Voila. My first true hybrid of conventional and Photoshop art. Bless you, Photoshop. Bless you, Advil and wrist brace. Thank heaven I mouse with my right hand and draw with my left.
All because I wanted to save time by not redrawing Baby from scratch. Artist logic is nonexistent.
_______________________
Sam and Dean are observed as they enter the Barrens, pre-crop. My brand of arting is messy:
____________________
The boys encounter a “budget Ghostbuster.” (Replaced in favor of the flashlight piece.)
_______________________
Rough sketch of Deborah Leeds's ghost, the first "final" version, and the reject that ended up the winner:
After scanning the drawing, I tried to use the PS function "outer glow" on her, but couldn't figure out how to get rid of all the little glowy orbs that were also generated. (Erasing them worked at first, but once I flattened the piece, the darned things came back.) Rejected it and moved on with a version in which the glow was digitally painted in. Later, clearing out the rejected files, the orbs caught my eye again, and were rescued from the "delete" pile. Yay for Photoshop accidents!